Aggravated Assaul.....?

"Don't you ever smile?"
"I am smiling!"

There is nothing wrong with an examiner, that trying to reason with him won't aggravate!

The Devil Is In The Delicti...

But my intentions were good !!

CONSCIENCE IS WHAT HURTS, 

WHEN EVERYTHING ELSE FEELS GOOD!

They Need To Be Pampered Sometimes, Too...

The Original "Contingency Plan"

Someone recently told me with great earnestness that: 

"Politicians and diapers have one thing in common!"

"Both should be changed regularly....

The Wall Street Big Bank Monopoly....

"Still hoggish after all these years..."
- Paul Simon

TOO BIG TO FAIL:

ENORMITIES OF SCALE ???

OR....

DEFORMITIES OF SCALE !!

Ever seen the card which is "top of the wallet" in every Wall St. bankers pocket?

Only One Word For It....

"We can't fix it,
if you don't tell us about it."

NCUA's proposed risk-based capital (RBC) rule has drawn a lot of "fire and fury" from many quarters - and will probably draw a whole lot more before the process is finished!

Was trying to think of the one phrase, the one word which might best describe the high level of anger and frustration which the proposed RBC rule has generated across the Country.

Perhaps the adjective which best captures how most folks view the RBC rule - and those who drafted it - is...

Payday Lending: Compounding A Problem...

Hair-brained??

When folks talk about human intelligence, quite often the first name mentioned is Albert Einstein, the original "Master of the Universe", with the theory of relativity - E=mc2 and all that.

Some may not know that Einstein was also financially shrewd and astute, famously noting that "the eighth wonder of the world is the power of compound interest".  It does seem somewhat miraculous how quickly compound interest can increase a pool of savings.

A great "rule of thumb"  for estimating growth

Fast money... !!

related to the compounding power of interest is called "The Rule of 72".  If you know the interest rate on an investment, then divide it into the number "72" and the answer will tell you approximately how many years it will take to "double your money" at that interest rate. Here's an example - an investment earning 12% will double in value in 6 years (72/12 = 6).  Equally an investment earning 9% would be worth twice as much in 8 years (72/9 = 8). Got it?

But perhaps a better example of the power of compound interest is to look at the growth in dollar terms. If that long lost, rich uncle had invested $10,000 at a 12% return (quite possible in a well-selected growth stock portfolio) for you when you were 10 years old, how much money would you have accumulated when you were ready to retire? Go ahead, take a guess!

Collecting pictures of
Ben Franklin!!

Well, let's see how it adds up.  It's going to double in value every 6 years (72/12 = 6).  So, at age sweet 16 (got the fund at age 10 and 6 years later you are 16!) the value has doubled to $20,000 and at age 22 ( 6 more years later!) it has doubled again to $40,000! Fast forward: age 28 = $80,000; age 34 = $160,000: age 40 = $320,000; age 46 = $640,000; age 52 = $1,280,000; age 58 = $2,560,000; age 64 = $5,120,000!!! Would make for a nice retirement - right!  Even at 8 or 9%, you would be sitting on a cool million dollars or so!

But according to Einstein, everything is relative....!!! 

So, if compounding "upward" on savings is "the eighth wonder of the world" for wealth building; then what should we call....

Top Down Management ....

The Red Zone !!

"Change" is like ketchup; you keep pushing and shaking and pounding away on it - and all of a sudden you have a big mess!

(And, the "plop" thickens...!!)

It's Going To Be A Long Political Season...

No high-rises,
no high blood pressure,
no nothing!

Was riding back from the North Carolina coast last week, doing my best to avoid the red, white, and blues of the interstates.  It was hard to leave. North Carolina beaches retain their low-key, kick off your sandals, family-oriented atmosphere - still remarkably, an "undiscovered" jewel on the Atlantic Seaboard.  Dangerously easy to "get use to"...

  Delight full....

Driving the "back roads" of rural, eastern N.C. remains a journey into the past, when everything was simpler, everything was local, and everything was slower. Pines and pastures, families and farms, small wood and brick churches with soaring steeples - and full pews every Sunday.  One, St. Delight UMC, has always beckoned to me...

Folks living "out in the country" still take their politics "serious" and the 2016 Presidential campaign is already in full swing according to the hand-lettered signs posted in several fields. My two favorites were...

"N.C. Environmentalists - You Betcha We're for Sarah Palin! 

We Support Arrested Development!"

... and on the Republican side....

NCUA Gnomes Discover New Trend: Robusterians Claim Your Economic Die is Cast.... Part II

Rarely insightful,
but always colorful!

Hard on the heels of their ground-breaking discovery of interest rate risk,  NCUA's "gnomadic tribe" (an Agency cult famous for wandering around a lot - illogically!) has announced another break through in the world of economic 
prestidigitation!

According to sources at the Agency, who had been

No, Not Again !!!

unsuccessful in leaking the story to the WSJ, the "robutsies" have identified (through meticulous research similar to the effort made with the proposed RBC rule) that there is a "rising age environment" prevalent among all credit union members, which unquestionably threatens the future stability of credit unions!  

Much like rising interest rates:
A Sure Bet !

Agency economists have reviewed historical data and concluded that there is a "100% 1-to-1 beta-coefficient" applicable to the relationship between living and dying!  In other words the robusterians have forecast that there is a 100% likelihood that if you are living now that you will die at some point in the future. The trend line is not encouraging!

Much as with the certainty of interest rate risk (see NCUA's "Chicken Little" IRR Forecast - 8/13/14), the future death of all CU members and staff requires, according to Agency senior strategists, an immediate plan from all CU Boards and management.

Here's NCUA's preliminary guidance which closely parallels their IRR guidance...  

It's Official ! NCUA Affirms Fowl Economic Interest Rate Forecast...Part I

 NCUA Robusterian reports
are full of stochaste !!

The second-quarter, economic forecasts from the robusterians over at the NCUA have just hit the streets; and, for the 1,786,176,581 potential CU members in the U.S. (as of the 3/31/2014, NCUA Call Report) there is some particularly frightening news...

 NCUA's General Counsel has reviewed and affirmed these forecasts!

This quarter's NCUA report regurgitates the ever-present obsession of the Duke Street gnomes with "interest rate risk". Much like your younger, teenage children with the issue of sex; "the first string" economic team over at the NCUA still believes that they were the first credit union

"That's right, a stork dropped
y'all down the chimney..." 

people to discover the concept of interest rate risk. (And hope to share a future Nobel Prize with Al Gore.)

And, much like the opinions of your teenagers, the "robutsies" are quite sure that you are neither aware of, nor familiar with, the topic - let alone having ever "practiced" it! (And, even if you have "tried it a time or two"; your efforts have not been "fully robust", nor "sufficiently granular"!)

NCUA's actual forecast as to interest rate risk is that...